General information

The project consists of two buildings for residential use for rent. The plot is L-shaped with a double façade facing the street. The formal unity of each of the facades allows it to be identified within the whole of the urban fabric. Both fronts are connected through the basement and create a large community space in the empty interior of the block.

In total, there are two new construction buildings with a total of 26 homes, 6 studios and 2 premises.

Location

The L-shaped plot is located in the Gràcia district and adjoins Roger de Flor Street on one side, Còrsega Street on the other, and Alió passageway on the other.

The plot is surrounded by already consolidated high-rise buildings, which cast shade over the patio, the roofs are used as sunny places also prepared for neighbourhood use.

The housing units take advantage of their urban position and their geometry. Both buildings break down the tremendous buildable depth through a central patio, in order to favor the ventilation and lighting of the homes.

Exteriors

The architecture of the new volumes tries to evoke the memory of the city and somehow complete its built front; The timeless elements that make up the personality of the neighborhood are taken as a reference. Tribunes, balconies, shutters, sgraffito walls, etc. they form a binary composition, flat, discreet, with hardly any surprises. The envelope is built using panels made of stained and stripped concrete with a geometric pattern of texture and color. They achieve, in an industrial way, the ancient artisan tradition of “sgraffito” stucco, so present in the memory of our city.

A basic repertoire of assembled components forms a continuous coating around an inertial structure, as a formal and constructive update of traditional construction.

Interiors

The 5 floors are standard floors, with two houses and a professional office-office on each floor. On the roof there is a natural drying area for common use for all the houses, a swimming pool for community use and the building facilities. The vertical communications core (stairs and elevator) runs from the basement to the covered floor. The elevator with a totally transparent glass cabin so that it is integrated into the patio, with machinery and structure without enclosure.

On the ground floor there is access to the vestibule of the houses and 2 houses with a mezzanine and a professional office-office with a mezzanine are developed, so that the ground floor and the mezzanine form a functional unit.

Sustainability and circular economy

The proper use of homes allows a good life inside, with low conventional energy consumption. Thus, we propose a construction that in itself supposes a climatic system, through the repertoire of systems involved: thermal inertia, measurement and orientation of the openings, modulation of solar radiation, good continuous insulation, natural ventilation and highly efficient mechanical installations. .

The very typology of the building works as a whole as a basic bioclimatic system; Inertial slabs, continuous well-insulated envelope, solar modulation in the openings and a central patio proportioned to activate the transversal ventilation of the rooms and their diffused lighting.

All housing units are designed to make the most of wind currents through an interior patio that promotes cross ventilation. The windows are also used to have as much natural lighting inside as possible, taking into account the necessary solar protection to avoid direct radiation in summer without compromising the views to the outside.

Most of the construction components are assembled and removable.